From Pordenone to Ravenna...on no sleep

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Geo: 44.4157, 12.1966

Poor old Steven. Within minutes of us walking in from the dinner with his family (at nearly midnight!), he succumbed to the same sickness that the boys have had - without the graphic details, he was running at both ends for about 5 hours.

But, as there wasn't the option to stay at the B&B another night, and as Steven was feeling somewhat better by 9am, we loaded the car and headed off. We had hoped to be at Zia Isetta's before she went to Mass at 10.30, but missed her by minutes unfortunately - but we had to call in, to return the bucket!!! It's the Feast of the Epiphany, and a public holiday in Italy - strange, given that Good Friday isn't a holiday!!!!

But wait! I forgot the really important news of the morning! La Befana came! Legend had it that Befana was asked for directions by the Three Wise Men. They asked for directions to where the Son of God was, as they had seen his star in the sky, but she did not know. The magi invited her to join them on the journey to find the baby Jesus, but she declined, stating she was too busy with her housework. Later, La Befana had a change of heart, and tried to search out the astrologers and Jesus. That night she was not able to find them, so to this day, La Befana is searching for the little baby. She leaves all the good children toys and candy (“caramelle”😉 or fruit, while the bad children get coal (“carbone”😉, onions or garlic. It varies from region to region, but in this part of Italy, kids get gifts from Santa Lucia on the 13th (and sometimes from St Nicolas on the 6th!), then Babbo Natale (Santa Claus) on the 25th and then La Befana on the 6th of January! We had left our stockings (dirty socks) out, and she came with chocolates and a toy car for the boys and a soft toy for G......much excitement!

So, on the road to Ravenna, for a rather uneventful drive. We stopped in Ferrara for lunch - a nice old town, with impressive walls, a lovely Duomo (which was closed) and impressive 13th century Castello Estense and Palazzo Comunale. There was a market, so we even got the chance to buy some more socks (without a washing machine for nearly a week, now!) and the kids received a stocking of candy from La Befana when they bought their "pizza by the slice" lunch. I've since read that Ferrara is the first medieval city that was a planned city - planning regulations and a master plan were created and followed for its construction!

Back on the road, and we followed the coastline down to Ravenna (Ravenna was on the sea 2000 years ago!). It was a little hard to work out where the centre of town was, and where we wanted to be - eventually, we found a carpark, found a city map and headed off. The crowds of people were in good humour - it was a public holiday and the shops were open for the sales - but down a little side street, we found a UNESCO World heritage listed Baptistery.

Ravenna was, in the 5th century, the seat of the Western Roman Empire (Rome was in decline by then) and it was here that the church battled about the relative importance of Jesus and God. . The Arians believed that Jesus didn't always exist, as he was created by the Father, and therefore Jesus was subordinate in power to God the Father and retained his human nature. This was outlawed in 300AD when the Nicene Creed was developed, but was still believed by a number of the Holy Roman Emperors. Basically it comes down to whether Jesus has a beard or not, in the mosaics - Jesus was depicted in the first 500 years of the church as a beardless man but this wasn't thought to give him the authority He deserved.

The Arian Baptiste13th century Castello Estensery, built by Theodoric next to his cathedral (now a church, but closed) was built in the 5th century!!!!!! The dome was covered in mosaics - very lovely, and awe inspiring to think of them being 1600 years old! There was no-one else there, except the old man at the entrance, and we felt we had stumbled on a gem in a quiet back street (the main pedestrian mall, one block away, was teaming with people).

From there, we also visited San Giovanni Evangelista - the church was built in the 5th century by the Roman imperial princess Galla Placidia. Heavily bombed during WWII, it has been restored, and the fragments show how wonderful it must have once been (lots of damage had also occurred prior to the war - most of the mosaics, for example, were stripped in the 18th century).

We wondered the busy streets, finding a little pizza place for dinner - but we were all exhausted so had an early night, with us in one hotel room and the 3 kids across the hall (nervous mummy!)

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